The science of medicine has achieved dramatic progress in the last several decades. Certain pathological phenomena of the human constitution have resisted the advances of medical science. Diabetic and arteriosclerotic gangrene still constitute a disproportionate number of cases requiring surgical intervention. Even more serious, is the constant factor of several hundred thousand patients being treated for injury resulting from thermal, chemical and electrical burns. In the United States alone, as many as 14,000 persons die from trauma caused by burns every year.
The satisfactory treatment of burns remains unresolved. There is no consensus by the medical profession as to the superiority of any one particular burn treatment.
More recently there have been developed burn treatment techniques which have certain advantages over prior methods, but these techniques have been found to have serious disadvantages. Thus, the escharotic agents such as tannic acid and silver nitrate find limited usage because of their tendency to cause infection under the eschar and to result in scarring and contracture deformaties.
An old burn treatment method still in use is the application of protective coatings of petrolatum with padded pressure dressings. Another technique is the so-called "exposed" treatment involving the use of doses of morphine to control pain and the administration of intravenous plasma.
Of persons suffering trauma, none pose greater medical problems than burn patients. One of the pioneers of burn therapy has stated that "the mortality rate from a really large burn hasn't improved in the last thousand years. Our improvements in burn therapy are strictly limited to those that affect between 20 and 60 percent of the body surface. Above that, well, if a patient lives it's luck, not medicine, that's saved him."
Accordingly, it is a main object of the present invention to provide medicaments and methods for the treatment of persons suffering from severe burn injuries.
It is another object of this invention to provide chemotherapeutic compositions for the treatment of burn trauma covering more than 60% of a body surface, and to achieve survival of patients suffering from such severe burn trauma.
It is another object of this invention to provide pharmaceutical preparations especially adapted for the treatment of diabetic, arteriosclerotic, decubitus, varicose, and other pathogenic ulcers.
It is still another object of this invention to provide therapeutic preparations for application as a matrix in plastic and reconstructive surgery, involving epidermis, dermis and underlying tissue including cartilage, tendons and bones, and blood vessels.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide pharmaceutical compositions for the treatment of infections of the skin and underlying tissues, external ear infections and internal otitis media infections, and for prevention of infection following trauma, such as abrasions, lacerations and puncture wounds of the skin surface.
Other objects and advantages shall become apparent from the accompanying description and invention theory and practice.